Policies and Politics of Government in Charge of a Public Agency

Public policy is a statement that defines the procedures of an institution for the achievement of consistency in decision-making. It is the result of a political process, which involves enacting laws and regulations to enable the addressing of public concern in a constitutional manner. The efficiency of a government is founded on the presence of proper and reliable policy-making procedures. The process of policy creation is thus the implementation of the constitution by the employment of certain causes of action and resource

The United States’ government has a responsibility to ensure the safety and security of its citizens and in doing so creates what is called public policy. The simplest way to describe public policy is an action that is taken by a government in order to address issues that they are facing. Public policy as its name states is generated through the government process such as the legislative branch. In order to address these issues the legislative branch enacts laws and regulations.

As the book states, the departmental agencies operate under the President’s Cabinet and the independent agencies operate without the oversight of Cabinet’s secretary. With the Senate consent, The President appoints Cabinet secretaries as well as the heads of independent agencies. Although the independent agencies are a part of the Executive Branch, they are, or should be, independent of presidential control. Departmental agencies are under a direct control of the President.

The opportunity for the public to respond to the proposed rules made by a government agency is the public comment period.

Though often unnoticed, it is fairly common for public administrators to participate in the policymaking process. Public administrators can influence the policymaking process in various ways. Government does not happen in a vacuum; therefore it is often common for legislators to turn to public administrators for help. Public administrators frequently have greater experience with content that may affect policies than legislators do. Due to their experience, legislators often rely on the input of public administrators. Public administrators deal with the issues of policies on a daily basis, therefore making them experts. The legislators rely on and expect public administrators to recognize any issues that they may foresee in a new policy. Though

According to Lenz & Holman, “public policy refers to governmental programs, rules, and courses of action” (2013). Public policy comes about through 6 stages: problem recognition, agenda setting, policy formulation, policy adoption, policy implementation, and policy evaluation (Lenz & Holman, 2013). Public interest groups have a great influence on formulating public policy, and implementing their personal agendas. They do this through lobbying. Lobbyist create networks with members of Congress, who then create public policy that benefits the interests of their group or organization.

In the book “Policy regime and policy change” by Carter Wilson basically highlight its main statement and goes thus; abrupt changes in policy occur with changes in policy paradigm and alterations in pattern of power and shifts in organizational arrangements. When there is a sudden change in policy, it affects virtually all level of power in its function. Several theories were presented in the book which illustrated the approaches to public policy and they will be discussed. The concept of “Punctuated Equilibrium” emerges as a way out of conflict between the incrementalists and their critics by providing a model that explains the existence of long periods of stability with occasional change. They focus on the dynamics of creation and destruction of policies (Baumgartner & Jones 1993).

Public policy is an essential element of the United States’ government. Congress, the president, the Cabinet, as well as the thousands members of the bureaucracy, all play a crucial role in defining how political decision are made in the United States. Public policy not only shapes the national government, but it also shapes the state and local governments as well. Domestic, foreign, and economic policies are come together to form public policy as a whole and all deal with different issues and problems of the country. However, both the president and Congress both have unique powers and roles that influence public policy in the domestic, foreign, and economic spheres.

4). Some have also noted that public policy is specifically oriented toward accomplishing a goal or resolving a particular issue or problem (Smith & Larimer, 2009, pp. 3-4). The policy making process is greatly affected by the range of interests that exist in society; people have different identities as well as membership in a variety of different groups which shape and influence their interests (Stone, 2012, p. 230). In turn, the variety of groups in society use purposeful techniques to present issues in ways designed to convince large numbers of people to side with them (Stone, 2012, p. 231).

Different from most modern bureaucrats, these political appointees and their subordinates acquire their positions through elections or answer directly to elected officials. In the view of the public, they are responsible for the operations of the bureaucracies that make up their respective branches. They are expected to set general policy and directions and provide leadership in order to manage government agencies and programs. In order to achieve these expectations they need some degree of influence, if not control, over bureaucratic agencies that may not be the main concern in the political success of failure of the executive. Deliberate strategies and influence is necessary in dealing with administrative agencies, if they want to succeed in leading administrative behavior toward satisfaction of their policy objectives. They are also dependent on bureaucracy for policy development due to the diversity of information sources within the executive staffs, and those used outside the government.

May (1992) harmonizes with Majone and Wildavsky (1984) on the fact that policy learning is desired for policy debate as analysis. Based on the information provided by Majone and Wildavsky (1984), the process of policy analysis should lead to a more sophisticated comprehension of public policies. Founding on this, public administrators can learn through engaging in the policy analysis and use this information to influence and inform future policies. May (1992) elucidates that there are two forms of policy learning: social learning and instrumental learning. Social learning pertains to lessons regarding the social construction related to policy problems, while instrumental learning is about the viability of the implementation designs or policy instrument (May, 1992). Through the learning process, public administrators can come of theories summarizing the ideas and theories that are important in the policy process.

In the beginning of the article, “Politics and the Policymaking Process”, the author introduces us to the five steps that have been considered the foundation of the policymaking process. (1) Identifying Policy Problems, problems are identified as policy related when a crisis occurs, or an

Through politics, governments are elected or appointed. Governments have the power to interpret and apply the rules and decisions that determine the way to administer nations.

Colebatch (2009, p. 47) defined policy as “The exercise of authority to achieve collective purposes. Policy is the pursuit of goals. The assumption is that policy is a purposive course of action”. Therefore, policy is processes acquired and followed by organisations to prevent and resolve contemporary difficulties. Public policy is policy for a public area or shared intent. It is when an organisation owns the policy (Baker, 2015).

At the other end of this continuum, the setting of public policies to dictate all the actions of individuals would result in producing a society based on extreme order. In both contexts, the option of enjoying the existing order or liberty to full extent is impossible without the attainment of adequate balance. At the extreme points, the scope or number of public policies can play an important role in the maximization of order and liberty. This perspective leads to the alternate description of the public policy. Public policy refers to the procedures through which the political establishment balances the need for creating a structured environment and provisions of freedom. Within such an environment, the political establishment can provide mechanisms through which to enjoy the freedoms in a meaningful manner. These policies are developed in order to act as checks for the role of government towards its citizens.